The rapidly increasing numbers of autonomous and/or remotely operated vehicles, such as aerial drones, places a renewed emphasis on the need to tightly control such vehicles to avoid collisions with objects such as people, buildings, and other stationary objects. Such vehicles are currently in widespread use in commercial applications such as photography, cinematography, and remote delivery of goods. These vehicles are typically battery operated and have a finite charge which limits the cargo carrying capacity of the vehicle. In addition, the vehicles are often constructed of plastic or other lightweight materials to improve range and reduce the load imposed on the power storage device (e.g., battery, supercapacitor, ultracapacitor) simply to return the vehicle to the origination point. Unfortunately, such lightweight construction places the vehicle in a vulnerable state with regard to random, variable, and occasionally damaging atmospheric or environmental conditions such as electrical activity, wind, wind shear, and precipitation. Having the ability to detect such environmental conditions and proactively adjust one or more vehicle operating parameters and/or vehicle routing to improve vehicle operational safety and/or vehicle range is therefore beneficial.
Although the following Detailed Description will proceed with reference being made to illustrative embodiments, many alternatives, modifications and variations thereof will be apparent to those skilled in the art.